The internationally successful FinTech Academy kicks off in South Africa at The FinTech Academy Africa on 24 and 25 April at the Duke Corporate Education Leadership Campus, Bryanston, Gauteng.

It is undeniable that the pace of disruption to legacy banking and financial services models will continue to accelerate. In addition, the pressure from challenger banks and FinTech disrupters will drive the speed and the timeline of existing financial services business model evolution.

The latest technology is creating disruption while at the same time serving as a tool to mitigate and reduce regulatory risk. The FinTech cluster at The Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative (CiTi) have sought out a way to support and assist executives to better understand the regulatory risks inherent in FinTech innovation and how to manage them, and also how to use RegTech to their advantage.

The FinTech Academy has combined international expertise, along with local core capability to bridge the gap of FinTech trends internationally with relevant South and African applicability.

The two day curriculum has been designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of key areas of FinTech which would usually take between nine months to a year to attain in normal working circumstances.

The FinTech Academy is aimed at C-Level executives who have limited time but need a deep dive into global best practice in FinTech. The FinTech Academy bring the best global expertise blended with African use cases and developments. You will be able to engage and network with experts in Disruptive Finance, Digital Innovation, listen to company CEO’s share their real experiences and learn from top-tier FinTech professionals sharing their latest insights.

Amongst the panel of distinguished trainers we are honored to host Patrick Butler, one of the foremost experts in Europe who will be imparting his knowledge on this subject at the event. Patrick is the Senior Regulatory Risk Expert at FINTECH Circle. He is a hands on-transformation expert and thought leader in Regulatory Risk management. Amongst Patrick’s many achievements he transformed and rebuilt Corporate and Business Banking Compliance for Barclays. He was also Head of Investment and Corporate Banking Compliance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Patrick also redesigned and relaunched Global Compliance Career Academy at Barclays Bank to rebalance technical training, contextual knowledge and behavioural skills in partnership with Cambridge Judge Business School.

Ian Merrington CEO of The Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) says: “Board directors and Executive Committee members are increasingly being called upon to make far reaching strategic business decisions in areas effected by rapidly developing disruptive technology. The curriculum of the FinTech Academy has been specifically developed to fast track their knowledge, support decision making and also to future proof their careers.”

Europe is already witnessing disruption to Wealth and Asset Management as a result of two primary drivers, firstly technology and secondly the new generation of consumer. These are combining to create the perfect storm of disruption to legacy Wealth and Asset Management models.

Susanne Chishti will take delegates on a deep dive into latest global wealth trends, FinTech solutions including Robo advisory and also case studies across wealth and private banking sub-sectors.

The Regulatory Risks inherent in FinTech innovation and how to manage them

Facebook’s WhatsApp recent move into digital payments in India reinforces the view of many, that the biggest competition to existing legacy banks could well come from the so called GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple).

It is undeniable that the pace of disruption to legacy banking and financial services models will continue to accelerate. In addition, the pressure from challenger banks and FinTech disrupters will drive the speed and the timeline of existing financial services business model evolution. This is unlikely to be a comfortable time for the incumbent players. Adding to the pressure and complexity for the executive team of any bank or financial services business, is the rigid regulatory environment and the difficulty of adopting disruptive innovation whilst mitigating compliance risk.

It is therefore ironic that the latest technology is creating disruption while at the same time serving as a tool to mitigate and reduce regulatory risk. We have, as part of our FinTech cluster at The Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative (CiTi) been seeking out a way to support and assist executives to better understand the regulatory risks inherent in FinTech innovation and how to manage them (and also how to use RegTech to their advantage).

We are very pleased to announce that we have procured one of the foremost experts in Europe, on this subject, Patrick Butler, who will be in South Africa on the 24th and 25th April in Johannesburg.

Patrick is the Senior Regulatory Risk Expert at FINTECH Circle. He is a hands on-transformation expert and thought leader in Regulatory Risk management. Amongst Patrick’s many achievements he transformed and rebuilt Corporate and Business Banking Compliance for Barclays. He was also Head of Investment and Corporate Banking Compliance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Patrick also redesigned and relaunched Global Compliance Career Academy at Barclays Bank to rebalance technical training, contextual knowledge and behavioural skills in partnership with Cambridge Judge Business School.

Patrick will be on hand to answer your questions and also to give you guidance and advice in a small Masterclass. If you would like to attend please book here The FinTech Academy Africa.

This is an extract from a paper which Patrick recently delivered where he dealt with the loss of public trust in banking. In response, regulators have changed their focus from control design to outcomes. They focus on behaviour and culture, conduct, and individual accountability, while expanding enforcement.

“What has become clear is that individual behaviour (or conduct) underpinned headline events that have driven these new rules, such as LIBOR-fixing, PPI mis-selling and Foreign Exchange price manipulation. These enforcement actions resulted in immense damage to the reputation of the industry that ensures the facilitation of global trade and supports local, national and global economies and forced banks to spend billions in legal costs, customer remediation, strengthening their risk control frameworks and restructuring – not to mention the record-breaking fines that continue to be levied.

In an industry under enormous pressure to provide returns, the billions in costs damaged key performance and liquidity measures such as Return on Capital and Tier 1 ratios. This in turn exacerbated the drive to deliver shareholder returns that are the basis for much of the decision making that will have contributed to the misconduct. In a low-interest rate environment, fees have become even more critical, while the client base has greater ability to move due to technology and with less loyalty due to the loss of trust. Competition has become harsh in this self-perpetuating circle that squeezes the industry.

So where does FinTech fit?

Where rewards continue to be huge, these large and sophisticated institutions have been adept at finding alternatives. Millions are spent on systems to monitor or control the sale, settlement and implementation and reporting of retail and wholesale products.

In this environment, all firms – whether Wealth, Asset Management, Investment, Corporate or Retail banking and to a greater or lesser degree – have turned to technological and product innovation to create a competitive offering, by making their product better, faster or easier, to reduce costs to provide confidence in controls to manage the Regulatory burden.

However, these innovators, challengers and incumbents must address the additional risk that this disruptive innovation creates.

Meanwhile, the FinTech firms have the advantage of fresh platforms, no highly public reputation (yet) to worry about and the opportunity to experiment and develop advanced brilliant new ideas to take advantage of the hyper leaps in technology.”

Come and join us at a FinTech Masterclass in Johannesburg on the 24th and 25th April to better equip yourself for FinTech decision making and engage with our team of international experts who can advise you on international best practice and provide you with practical advice regarding your FinTech stress points. Book your spot here The FinTech Academy Africa.

The Academy is aimed at C-Level executives who have limited time but who need a deep dive into global best practice in FinTech. The two day curriculum has therefore been designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of key areas of FinTech which would normally take between nine months and a year to attain in normal working circumstances.

FinTech Academy Africa

launches in South Africa!

The internationally successful FinTech Academy will be launching in South Africa as The FinTech Academy Africa on the 24th and 25th April.

The FinTech Academy is aimed at C-Level executives who have limited time but who need a deep dive into global best practice in FinTech. The two day curriculum has therefore been designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of key areas of FinTech which would normally take between nine months and a year to attain in normal working circumstances.

The FinTech Academy has combined international expertise, along with local core capability to bridge the cutting edge of FinTech trends internationally with relevant South and African applicability.

Ian Merrington CEO of The Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) says: “Board directors and Executive Committee members are increasingly being called upon to make far reaching strategic business decisions in areas effected by rapidly developing disruptive technology. The curriculum of the FinTech Academy has been specifically developed to fast track their knowledge, support decision making and also to future proof their careers.”

Nicole added: “Skills are a hot topic anywhere in the world when it comes to FinTech and this region is no exception. This is still a nascent industry – and stakeholders are learning in parallel. Innovation is much more about experimentation and execution than theory and through the Academy we are able to bring world class learnings and trends to life with African use cases and serve the needs of all key stakeholders – big business, policy makers, government bodies and the innovators themselves – in a relevant and engaging way.”